Food, inc.
Food is something that we all need and enjoy, but do we really no how its gets to our table? The sad answer is not really, in my experience very few people know the real story of how food goes from field to table. The 2008 film Food, inc. by Robert Kenner examines how food is really produced in the United States. First of all, family farm are a thing of the past most food produced in the United States is grown by corporate farms that have huge, several hundred acre farms. These farms often only produce a single crop, leading to soil depletion do to the single crop. To counter act this farmers are inclined to spread fertilizers, most of which are chemically based. Runoff from these farms, pollute the surrounding water. But the one of the most troubling of corporate farming practice is the extensive use of pesticides and herbicides, used to control insects and nuisance plants form growing and damaging the valuable crop.
The major cop grown in the United States today is corn. Corn does not have a very high nutritional significance, but it has a high economic value. This is because corn is very cheap due to government subsidies. Corn is therefore a good starting material for the manufacture of other products, like high fructose corn syrup, corn starch, and a multitude of other corn derivatives. Because corn is such a good material to extract other useful chemicals, and food additives from it has found its way into the nation’s food supply. Corn can be found in some form in almost everything in your local supermarket. We rely so heavily for corn, it feeds cattle and other livestock and increasingly we are using it for fuel, that any loss of production could cripple the agriculture system of the U.S. (Hirsch, 2008).
Another issue with the corporate model of farming is the raising of livestock. Corporate farming of cattle and chickens take place in confined spaces, with hundreds of animals in a relatively small area. The problem with this is that due to the high population density and lack of sanitation the animals are more susceptible to diseases, to combat this farmer add minister antibiotics, the use of which leads to more resistant bacteria. These feeding operations are detrimental to not only the animal, but also to the environment, through discharge of animal waste (EPA, 2010). Now the animals need to be slaughtered, to be slaughtered the animals are brought to the slaughterhouse. The slaughterhouse is a disassembly factory, on an extremely fast rate. Starting with sick animals, when their slaughtered the meat can become contaminated from the containments of their own innards, contaminating the meat supply of the country.
Why this is all allowed to happen? Well, part of reason for this is government policy on farming, allowing for the use of pesticides and antibiotics. Because of this, the corporations are allowed to use these chemicals and pollute the environment, and even to pollute the population that they are producing for. This movie was very eye opening, to corporate farming ad a whole. I believe that everyone should see this movie, starting with younger children in middle school. The interventions proposed by the video, is to protest for more regulation of food production all the while insisting for higher quality. Food is a basic right that every person should be able to trust for quality and integrity.
Food is something that we all need and enjoy, but do we really no how its gets to our table? The sad answer is not really, in my experience very few people know the real story of how food goes from field to table. The 2008 film Food, inc. by Robert Kenner examines how food is really produced in the United States. First of all, family farm are a thing of the past most food produced in the United States is grown by corporate farms that have huge, several hundred acre farms. These farms often only produce a single crop, leading to soil depletion do to the single crop. To counter act this farmers are inclined to spread fertilizers, most of which are chemically based. Runoff from these farms, pollute the surrounding water. But the one of the most troubling of corporate farming practice is the extensive use of pesticides and herbicides, used to control insects and nuisance plants form growing and damaging the valuable crop.
The major cop grown in the United States today is corn. Corn does not have a very high nutritional significance, but it has a high economic value. This is because corn is very cheap due to government subsidies. Corn is therefore a good starting material for the manufacture of other products, like high fructose corn syrup, corn starch, and a multitude of other corn derivatives. Because corn is such a good material to extract other useful chemicals, and food additives from it has found its way into the nation’s food supply. Corn can be found in some form in almost everything in your local supermarket. We rely so heavily for corn, it feeds cattle and other livestock and increasingly we are using it for fuel, that any loss of production could cripple the agriculture system of the U.S. (Hirsch, 2008).
Another issue with the corporate model of farming is the raising of livestock. Corporate farming of cattle and chickens take place in confined spaces, with hundreds of animals in a relatively small area. The problem with this is that due to the high population density and lack of sanitation the animals are more susceptible to diseases, to combat this farmer add minister antibiotics, the use of which leads to more resistant bacteria. These feeding operations are detrimental to not only the animal, but also to the environment, through discharge of animal waste (EPA, 2010). Now the animals need to be slaughtered, to be slaughtered the animals are brought to the slaughterhouse. The slaughterhouse is a disassembly factory, on an extremely fast rate. Starting with sick animals, when their slaughtered the meat can become contaminated from the containments of their own innards, contaminating the meat supply of the country.
Why this is all allowed to happen? Well, part of reason for this is government policy on farming, allowing for the use of pesticides and antibiotics. Because of this, the corporations are allowed to use these chemicals and pollute the environment, and even to pollute the population that they are producing for. This movie was very eye opening, to corporate farming ad a whole. I believe that everyone should see this movie, starting with younger children in middle school. The interventions proposed by the video, is to protest for more regulation of food production all the while insisting for higher quality. Food is a basic right that every person should be able to trust for quality and integrity.
Bibliography
Kenner, Robert (Director). Food, inc. [motion picture] http://www.foodincmovie.com/EPA. (2010, November 8). How Do CAFO's Impact the Environment. Retrieved November 11, 2010, from EPA: http://www.epa.gov/region7/water/cafo/cafo_impact_environment.htm
Hirsch, J. (2008, March 2). Corn is king -- and therefore a growing problem. Retrieved November 11, 2010, from Los Angeles Times: http://articles.latimes.com/2008/mar/02/business/fi-corn2